Before and After Science

Way back in the 2020’s there was both widespread optimism about the future and widespread pessimism. Crypto enthusiasts knew deep in their bones that distributed ledger technology would change everything. Environmentalists and geopolitical policy wonks saw some bleak times ahead.

Neither then guessed that both would turn out to be right.

Fiat giants crumbled remarkably fast, mostly during The Great Unraveling of 2030–2032. Central Bank Digital Currencies had irresistible honey pots and hackers had a field day first with the Yuan, but the Euro, Yen, and Dollar all turned out to be not as invulnerable as claimed. Soon Bitcoin took all their places. By 2040, anyone with a million Satoshis was fabulously wealthy, set for life with their DeFi yield-farming earnings.

But by then, many nation-states had already gone belly up. China had entered a new Warring States period of chaos, and petroleum-based economies everywhere buckled as the widespread adoption of solar paint wreaked havoc on the underpinnings of their societies. The Saudi regime was certainly doomed at that point, but when someone (who has never be proven, but possibly that Chechen apostate?) set off a tac nuke less than 200 meters from the Grand Mosque in Mecca in 2037, things got really crazy throughout the Muslim world. And the massive death tolls from the Global Heat Catastrophes of 2038, 2041, and 2044–2046 brought down many governments. It seemed for a while that the climate had recovered a bit but the recent 2057–2058 heat that killed millions suggests we are not out of the woods. On the other hand, methane and nitrous oxide levels have dropped over the last few years thanks to much of world trade drying up as local production has blossomed, so perhaps there’s hope.

All that said, I’m an old man who needs to figure out where to live out his days. My son is trying to talk me into riding the space elevator recently built by the Hive DAO up to live at one of the “senior pods” at his station, but I’m leaning towards getting a place near my daughter and granddaughter in Hautes-Pyrénées. Charles can ride the elevator down for visits.

Pixabay illustration (alan9187); the post’s clickbait title was lifted from Brian Eno’s album of the same name.